Who: Red Bull Theater company
What: Conversation about William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, live online unrehearsed reading of play
Where: Red Bull Theater website and Facebook Live
When: Monday, May 11 and 18, free (donations accepted), 7:30
Why: No other New York City theater company has taken advantage of livestreaming during the pandemic shutdown like Red Bull has. The troupe, which specializes in Elizabethan and Jacobean comedy and tragedy, has been hosting events on its online sites every Monday night at 7:30, alternating between RemarkaBULL Podversations, in which actors discuss famous speeches, and live, unrehearsed Zoom readings with the original casts of previous Red Bull productions. On April 13, Michael Urie took on the “Queen Mab” speech from Romeo & Juliet, followed April 27 by Elizabeth Marvel tackling Mark Antony’s “Cry Havoc” monologue from Julius Caesar. Meanwhile, the company held live reunion readings of John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore on April 20 and Ford, Thomas Dekker, and William Rowley’s The Witch of Edmonton on May 4. (While the podversations can still be viewed on the website, the readings are available only through the Friday of that week.)
Red Bull now turns its attention to the Bard’s Coriolanus, which it staged in the fall of 2016 at the Barrow Street Theatre in a dynamic production set during the Occupy movement that I wrote was transported to “up-to-the-minute contemporary times in a fast and furious immersive adaptation bursting with passion and energy.” On May 11 at 7:30, the podversation “There Is a World Elsewhere” delves into two speeches from the play, with Dion Johnstone, who starred as Cauis Martius, and Lisa Harrow, who played Volumnia, in conversation with Red Bull associate producer Nathan Winkelstein. And nearly the entire original cast will be back on May 18 for a live, unrehearsed reading, with Matthew Amendt as Tullus Aufidius, Zachary Fine as Titus Lartius, Rebecca S’Manga Frank as Virgilia, Harrow as Volumnia, Merritt Janson as Brutus, Johnstone as Cauis Martius, Aaron Krohn as General Cominius, Patrick Page as Menenius Agrippa, Olivia Reis as Young Martius, Lily Santiago as Valeria, Stephen Spinella as Sicinius, and Edward O’Blenis in multiple small roles, along with composer Brandon Wolcott, all performing from wherever they are sheltering in place. Both events are free, but donations are accepted. Up next will be Zoom reunion readings of Red Bull’s 2005-6 version of Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy on June 1 and Jeffrey Hatcher’s fab 2017 adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector on June 15.